| | | | | LOTS of media news today... From NPR to GQ, "fake news" to Sam Bee, Reuters to Fusion... scroll down for all of it... | | The Murdochs pressured her to make a contract decision -- stay with Fox News or leave? -- before the launch of her book "Settle for More." But Megyn Kelly held out for more. In a THR cover story on Wednesday, Kelly said she hasn't "ruled anything out." And: "I am trying to not confine myself." And: "This is a big one for me, so I want to get it right."
Kelly also told THR that "the current schedule I'm on is not ideal for a mother of young children." On the other hand, her husband Douglas Brunt said "she is on fire" between 9 and 10pm... "She really does love that hour..." So the speculation will continue... Here's my latest story... | | | Flashback: Shine to Cohen: "If Megyn Kelly gets killed..." | | In a sit-down with Anderson Cooper on Wednesday's "AC360," Kelly talked about why she had to have security guards with her after Trump started to verbally attack her last year. She recalled how Trump lawyer Michael Cohen retweeted someone saying "we can gut her" at a time of heightened threats. Fox News exec Bill Shine intervened, telling Cohen, "You gotta stop this," Kelly recalled. Cohen "didn't much care." So Shine said, "Lemme put it to you in terms you can understand. If Megyn Kelly gets killed, it's not going to help your candidate."
-- Plus: Stephen Battaglio reports that Trump supporters are trying to undermine Kelly's book by posting "an onslaught of negative reviews on Amazon..." | | | Kelly's response to O'Reilly: "I believe that Roger Ailes made the company look bad" | | | An update on O'Reilly v. Kelly: Bill O'Reilly appeared on "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday and said, "I'm not interested in making my network look bad," implying that Kelly is making Fox News "look bad" by talking about alleged harassment by Roger Ailes. On Wednesday morning, it was Kelly's turn on CBS. And she said "I believe that Roger Ailes made the company look bad." She added that she's proud the Murdochs "feel as I do, which is sunlight is the best disinfectant." Kelly also said she is speaking out about the harassment partly because "this doesn't just happen at Fox News..." | | | Kelly's OTHER response to O'Reilly | | Speaking at a Barnes & Noble signing on Wednesday night, Kelly acknowledged that O'Reilly has the #1 show on cable news, but said she has the #1 "news show" on cable news. (Via The Wrap's Brian Flood)
-- BTW: O'Reilly is taking time off starting Thursday, so we're unlikely to hear from him again for a while... | | | Bill Carter tweets: "Megyn Kelly getting legit attention for book; but why, if felt threatened, degraded by Donald Trump, didn't she confront him, instead of soft interview post-debate?" Carter and I will be back on "New Day" Thursday morning, 6:45ish... | | | Diane Rehm's successor is... | | | Lisa France emails: When venerable NPR host Diane Rehm retires at the end of the year, she will be replaced by Joshua Johnson and a midday show looking at "a changing America." WAMU says "1A" will debut on January 2. Details... | | | Layoffs coming to Univision | | | Margaret Sullivan broke the news on Wednesday morning: Univision is laying off 200-250 people, about 6% of the company's workforce. The cuts will primarily affect Fusion. Tom Kludt has details here... Scroll down for more... | | | Sam Bee's "Full Frontal" renewed | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Samantha Bee, one of Trump's most outspoken critics on TV, will be there for his first year in office. TBS's "Full Frontal" will start its second season on January 11. And it's moving from Mondays to Wednesdays... Still at 10:30pm ET... Details... | | | 15 journalism groups write open letter to Trump | | | After Tuesday night's Trump trip without the press pool, fifteen journalism advocacy groups banded together to write this open letter to Trump: "As the new leader of the free world, we expect that you will preserve longstanding traditions that ensure coverage of the Trump presidency." That includes the pool, plus regular press conferences, pool sprays, and improved FOIA response rates. Here's the letter... | | | NYT shrugs off latest Trump tweetstorm | | | I know I'm sounding like a broken record. But he did it again: Trump woke up, read the NYT, and tweeted his displeasure with the paper. CNNMoney's Jill Disis has a recap here. The NYT responded by saying "We are incredibly proud of their work and we will never alter our approach to reporting the facts, without fear or favor, as we have always done..." | | | -- Related: Talking with Hala Golani on CNN International on Wednesday afternoon, I was struck by this stat she shared: Of Trump's 23 tweets since election day, 8 have been anti-media... | | | "Trump's goal is to sow doubt, not to rebut falsehoods" | | | NYT's Dick Stevenson tweets to WashPost's Philip Bump: "From one member of the reality based community to another, thanks. Facts matter." Here's what Bump wrote: "Trump's gripes about the NYT are usually about stories that are shown to be accurate... Trump's goal is to sow doubt, not to rebut falsehoods..." | | | "Early signs from Donald Trump are worrisome" | | | Dan Rather writes on Facebook: "Every President in recent memory has traveled with the press pool. It is there for a reason. Donald Trump is no longer a private citizen. His actions and whereabouts effect all of us. If news breaks around him or involving him, it is the public's right to know about it. That is the nature of democracy. There are certain norms about the press and the presidency that are there for a reason. And the early signs from Donald Trump are worrisome..." | | | For the record, "post-truth" edition | | | -- WashPost's Erik Wemple says Breitbart is embracing "media mass intimidation..."
-- This, by Brian Phillips on MTV.com, is one of the best things I've read about "Facebook's fake news problem." He says "confusion is an authoritarian tool... Authoritarianism wants to convince its supporters that nothing is true..."
-- The Federalist's Tom Elliott says his former boss Laura Ingraham would make a great press secretary... Here's why...
-- Ben Shapiro's latest: "The Media Go Insane Over Trump In Every Way. That's Why We Don't Trust Them."
-- Oxford Dictionaries says "post-truth" is its 2016 international word of the year. It beat out "alt-right" and "woke." | | | About the anti-Bannon effort | | Dylan Byers emails: What's the end-game of the anti-Bannon effort? Steve Bannon, the soon-to-be chief strategist in Trump's White House, has been the top target of Democrats' attacks this week, relentlessly criticized for fueling racism, white nationalism, and so on. To his critics, this is a moral necessity: "I think people are deeply concerned about a guy who pals around with white supremacists having a senior role in the White House," former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer tells me.
But politically speaking, what's the end-game? Is it to get Bannon removed from Trump's administration, or simply to make Trump look bad? One theory is that making Bannon the face of a Trump administration will force the President-elect to cut ties, at least if he truly intends to be a president for all Americans. Short of that, it's simply a matter of undercutting whatever political leverage Trump has as a new president. But there's another consideration as well, which has to do with resisting Trump's ability to normalize world-views that once existed at the fringes of American politics. "Bannon's appointment basically signals that a once marginal sect is now part of a governing coalition. That is new in American politics, and many people find it disturbing," New York's Jonathan Chait tells me. "Pushing back on it is a way of trying to keep that abnormal rather than normal." | | | GQ profiles Charles Harder | | Coming to GQ's web site on Thursday: Jason Zengerle's profile of Charles Harder, "THE MEDIA LAWYER WHO WANTS TO TEACH THE JOURNALISTS SOME MANNERS."
Zengerle writes: "In addition to representing Melania Trump, have rumors circulated that Harder could also represent the President Elect in what could be the libel suit of the century, were it to be pursued: Donald Trump v. The New York Times. Though he neglects to comment directly on those details, he does say, 'it would be interesting if he's a sitting president, as opposed to just a businessman. But either way I would probably bring that case if I felt it had merit.'" | | -- Breaking: "Duck Dynasty" is coming to an end after this season... (Variety)
-- Gretchen Carlson's first TV interview since suing Ailes will air this Friday on "20/20," ABC says... (Deadline)
-- Alex Wagner is joining CBS... as a correspondent and the co-host of "CBS This Morning: Saturday..." (TVNewser)
-- Mark Mooney emails: Reuters has named Paul Thomasch its Top News editor. Top News is the wire's desk that oversees the day's most important stories. Ed Tobin was named as Thomasch's deputy. (Tobin is CNN's Christine Romans' husband.) | | | Restructuring ahead at Univision | | Circling back to the news about Univision's layoffs -- part of a looming "media winter" of cutbacks -- Tom Kludt emails:
There is no sugarcoating the news of more than 200 people losing their job, but in some ways, this restructuring was inevitable. One Fusion employee described it as a "delayed aftershock" from Univision's acquisition of Gawker Media (now known as Gizmodo Media), whose staff members will be unaffected by the layoffs. Quite simply, in acquiring the successful Gawker sites, Univision was able to reach a robust, young, multicultural audience that Fusion has never been able to draw in significant numbers. Folding Fusion into the Gizmodo portfolio may also give a needed jolt to a site that has never quite gained traction. But still, this is a grim outcome for many staff members who appear to have been blindsided by the layoffs – and probably a disquieting sign of things to come... | | | Tom adds: Univision also announced that Gizmodo Media exec editor John Cook will helm a "new digital investigative team, which will include several of [Gizmodo Media Group's] best investigative journalists." Cook will transition to the role by the end of the year, meaning that Gizmodo Media will be in the market for a new top editor... | | BuzzFeed's Craig Silverman has done it again... This time, he has studied Facebook engagement for the final three months of the election, and this is what he's found:
"The top-performing fake election news stories on Facebook generated more engagement than the top stories from major news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, NBC News, and others." The fop five stories were all anti-Clinton... Read more here... | | | Al Michaels gets a "bye week" | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Everybody in the NFL gets a bye week, even apparently its announcers. Mike Tirico will take over the play-by-play role from Al Michaels on NBC's coverage of three NFL games over Thanksgiving week. NBC did not give any other reason for subbing in Tirico other than to give Michaels, who is 72, a break. That said, it'll be interesting to see how Tirico, a longtime announcer of "Monday Night Football," does in the booth during one of the NFL's biggest weeks. Read more... | | Via Lisa France:
-- Straight Up: Paula Abdul, NKOTB and Boyz lI Men are going on tour this summer. It's as if the '90s never left...
-- Carrie Fisher's story about having had an affair with Harrison Ford during the filming of the original "Star Wars" is out of this world to some fans...
-- Kanye West won't have to follow through on his threat to boycott the Grammys if they don't nominate Frank Ocean's latest album. That's because Ocean decided to have a "Kapernick moment" and not submit his work... | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email... And we'll be back tomorrow... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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